# Are fart jokes universal?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fart-jokes-universal/570080>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 3, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fart-jokes-universal/570080 "2011-02-03T23:15:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fart-jokes-universal/570080/21 "2011-02-07T15:38:42Z")

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> [@Washoe](#):
>
> …Brownie points for anybody who can tell me in what science fiction book I first read this. Was it one of the Riverworld books? I’m almost certain that it was, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Not sf, but Salman Rushdie told a version of it in _The Satanic Verses_.

And I remember an old English variant in which a bowing nobleman farted in front of Queen Elizabeth I, and at once fled the palace in mortification. Many years later, after living as a virtual recluse, he thought, “Surely everyone will have forgotten by now,” and returned to court.

The Queen greeted him by saying, “My lord, welcome back! I had quite forgot the fart.”

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**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fart-jokes-universal/570080/22 "2011-02-07T19:37:22Z")

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> [@Washoe](#):
>
> Brownie points for anybody who can tell me in what science fiction book I first read this. Was it one of the Riverworld books? I’m almost certain that it was, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

That is indeed from **Riverworld** , the first novel of the eponymous serial. Richard Burton relates it around a campfire one night.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fart-jokes-universal/570080/23 "2011-02-07T19:48:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> That is indeed from Riverworld, the first novel of the eponymous serial. Richard Burton relates it around a campfire one night.

And, of course, Burton would have known of it from The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night (as **mbh** relates). And Farmer probably knew of it and of Burton because of that book.  
I find it intriguing that of all the stories in the 1001 nights, this is one of the very few to make it into the Penguin collection _Tales from the Arabian Nights_ (and into its audio edition, as well). \*

Nitpick – the first novel is only “eponymous” because it names the world “Riverworld”. The title of the first novel is _To Your Scattered Bodies Go_. Farmer did write a short story entitled “Riverworld” (It’s in the collection _Riverworld and other stories_), but it has nothing to do with the Burton/Twain main story thread.

\*and the editors of the Penguin edition _hate_ the Burton translation, by the way

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